By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services/East Valley Tribune
Tom Horne will pay $10,000 out of his own pocket to end an investigation into whether he illegally used staffers at the Attorney General’s Office in his reelection campaign.
The deal, set for review Thursday by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, ends the chance that Horne could be liable for close to $1 million in penalties after amid allegations that the “volunteers” for his Republican primary fight were not really volunteers at all but instead employees at the state agency.
That is based on a conclusion by Thomas Collins, the commission’s executive director, the Horne used more than $300,000 worth of state employee time and rent in his unsuccessful race.
